An Ending: UNDERSWAP
by Don't Frikkin Touch Me
Summary: Ten years after the Pacifist ending, Chara finds their happy ending is still not happy. Meanwhile Papyrus fixes the machine in the back shed in hopes of bringing back his father. But when something goes wrong, suddenly they're back at the start; where Chara's still eighteen yet their memory is completely wiped? None of the seven souls had ever fallen? Papara later on. On haitus!
1. PART ONE

**PART ONE**

 **An Ending**


	2. The Best Possible Ending

The first thing they felt in the morning was the cold sweat on the back of their neck. The next was the uncomfortable twist of the blankets around them, and they were tearing at the knotted sheets even before they fully woke.

Dawn filtered in through the thin green curtains, a strip of blue pouring into the room through the slight opening in the middle. It hit Chara right in the eye as they sharply sat up, and they flinched back with a groan, blinking hard a few times, trying to regain their senses. They were still breathless from the horrible vision their subconscious had cooked up the night before; supposedly causing them to toss and turn, hence why the sheets had locked them securely in a makeshift straitjacket. Their mind was still running on fight or flight mode.

 _Falling... falling...!_

They shook their head hard and forced their eyes to open up long enough to take in the room around them. The window on the wall, the closet in the corner, the desk at the left, overflowing with papers. The table next to their bed, stacked up with dishes they'd yet to give to Asgore. The random articles of clothing scattered along the carpet. They took in several long breaths, and waited for their heart rate to slow.

 _I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine._

Chara pulled their knees up far enough to lean on them, forcing their fingers into their tangled hair as they tried to recall the dream that freaked them out so badly in the first place. There was so much to it, they knew, but all they could even remember right now was the falling. The intense vertigo, the stomach leaping into their throat- that was the thing that tore them out of their subconsciousness and into the gasping heap they'd been just a moment ago. Usually a very common thing, vertigo- it happened to lots of people, and they'd experienced it lots of times before. But _this,_ the motion, the intensity, it just... bore way too much resemblance to...

 _There's no RESET._ Chara reassured themself, relief pouring over them the more it sank in. _I haven't RESET. Look around; everything's still normal, everything's still okay._

Good. Good.

They swung their legs over the side of the bed and stumbled into a standing position, suddenly feeling far more tired than their shaking limbs had led them to believe. They could feel their body growing even heavier as the events of the past few weeks came flooding back and their awaiting responsibilities began to eat at their thoughts. They groaned.

They were so tired of the work. They were so tired of the responsibility.

They were just so, utterly, emotionally... drained.

.:|:.

8:00 am.

Chara took the bus to school. They'd tied back their wild hair and zipped their jacket all the way to their chin. The other kids in their grade growled and squawked all around them, but not a single one of them took the spot next to Chara. They held a certain reputation, the other teens had learned. Chara wasn't very welcome among other humans.

9:30 am.

Chara met up with Asriel for a free period. The classes were segregated for humans and monsters, making everything a bit complicated for interspecies friends: those of which, there really weren't many. Asriel talked about the apartment he was looking to rent once he finally turned eighteen. He showed Chara pictures. Chara smiled and nodded.

11:00 am.

Chara was shoved roughly against a locker by one of their peers, knocking into some poor sophomore and scattering papers all over the floor. Chara profusely apologized and helped her gather them as the other students scurried to class. The girl thanked them and asked their name. The minute they told her, her smile dissipated. She simply thanked them again, rather uncomfortably this time, and quickly ran off.

12:30 pm.

After a dry school lunch that left their mouth feeling like sandpaper, Chara found themself in study hour, scrolling through miles and miles of stupid college surveys on their netbook. After the third survey they gave up and clicked open another tab, surfing the world wide web for a detailed history on the civil rights movement.

2:00 pm.

Chara was excused from school to attend a political meeting. Chara spent over thirty minutes arguing with several other officials about the blatant unfairness held toward monsters in social, economic, and political situations; the segregation and the wage differences being only a few examples of things that pissed them off. As always, the adults had a counter for everything Chara said- or rather, shouted. They demanded Chara arrange a debate if they were 'that passionate about it', and Chara very angrily agreed.

3:30 pm.

Finally, Chara found themself staring up at a huge gray building; a fortress of thick brick and surrounded by barbed wire, almost as devoid of color as the miserable cloudy sky above.

Inside, they summoned the attention of a few guards. It was time.

Chara entered a room with seven booths, each bearing a chair, a phone, and a window to another room. They waited in the center booth until the door on the other side of the glass opened.

She walked into her booth opposite Chara, sitting down and taking the phone on her side of the glass; a bit difficult to accomplish with both hands handcuffed together. She was cruelly muzzled, so she couldn't respond. But Chara was used to that. Toriel hadn't been able to respond for ten years.

They cleared their throat.

"Hi, mom."

Toriel looked at them with gentle eyes, waiting for them to continue. So just like every weekend before, Chara opened their mouth and poured out everything. Everything and anything, major and minor, from the big struggles of being an ambassador to the tiny, nitpicky things they were frustrated about in school. They expressed how much they worried about the monsters that depended on them. As they went on, Toriel's eyes dulled more and more in sympathy. She knew all too well what Chara was telling her.

When Chara was done, they bit their lip.

"Mom?"

Toriel cocked her head the slightest bit, allowing her droopy ears to shift on her shoulders; like the long hair of a mother, safe, and familiar. Chara blinked the burning out of their eyes.

"I miss you."

Toriel's eyes crinkled a little with a sad smile. She placed a hand on the window.

Chara reached up and touched it.

.:|:.

At 5:00 pm, Chara took a bus to the mountainside park, and took the trail to the top of the mountain. It took nearly an hour, but when they finally saw the little fuzzy creature atop a nest of rocks, gazing out over the city, shadowed in the setting sun, they were relieved to see it was worth it.

They slowed their heavy breaths and walked carefully toward the big white cat. The cat's ears- the perky ones and the droopy ones alike- strained a little, and it turned its wistful expression to Chara.

"I knew you'd come."

Chara shrugged a little, and gave a small, modest smile. "Well... I suppose I _am_ very predictable."

"You didn't used to be." The cat murmured, and turned back to the city. Chara looked out at the view with him, just for a moment.

"You know..." He started again, slowly. "Checking up on me every month isn't going to help you with your 'pacifist journey'. I'm not going to turn back into MK. I'm never going to be MK ever again."

Chara held a short breath, and let it out slowly. "That's not why I..."

"Yeah it is. You know it is. But listen to me. I've lost my chance for a 'happy ending'. I can't be saved. So _stop trying_." His claws scraped against the rocks, leaving little white marks. "Its been _ten years_..."

He stopped when the human beside him suddenly wrapped him in their arms. He mumbled a bit in protest, but didn't shove away.

"I don't care." Chara whispered.

And then they stayed like that. A couple minutes flew by in a heartbeat, and Temmie couldn't ward away the mist that collected in his eyes. But finally, he shook away, planting his paws and wrapping his tail around them. Chara knelt beside him, saying nothing.

"Go home." Temmie deadpanned. "There's nothing else you can do for me here."

Chara looked like they wanted to protest, but they held their tongue and stood reluctantly.

"...Sure you don't want to come with?" Chara asked hesitantly.

Temmie's smile was hollow. "No."

.:|:.

They returned home by 8:30 pm, tossing their backpack onto their bed, still messed up from that morning. Asgore had followed them with his eyes as they'd rushed down the hallway, but said nothing, knowing asking about their day would prompt the same answer as always; a dull smile and a simple, "Fine."

Things were always 'fine'. There was nothing else it could be.

They fell heavily onto the chair in front of their desk, dropping their chin on their hands. The documents scattered over the desktop featured plenty of paperwork they were required to finish by next Tuesday, the day they'd also be inclined to give a speech at a stupid luncheon with a bunch of other patronizing adult humans. They hadn't even gotten started on that...

Their hand found its way up to their neck, where the locket dangled- small, warm, and safe. Much smaller, though, since the first time they'd put it on so long ago. It didn't fit them very well anymore, the chain only leaving an inch of breathing room. Still, they never dared take it off. It was their last reminder that this ending... And everything that came with it... Was worth it.

This ending. The best possible ending.

 _The best possible ending._

Chara clenched the locket so hard their knuckles turned white.

This was not what they'd had in mind.

* * *

 **So far, so good. Now remember if you have any comments or questions don't be afraid to hit that review button. They're always appreciated! Make sure to follow/favorite to get the latest updates because this story is going to get wild real quick. Have fun and enjoy the read!**

 **-DFTM**


	3. Catching Up

_SNAP!_

"Gah!" Papyrus shouted, jerking away from the machine as electricity sparked across two raw wires. He growled a little and tried again, holding onto the rubber part this time.

His white t-shirt was completely covered in burns and little holes; proof that this certainly wasn't the first time he'd screwed up a thing or two messing with the machine. He again tightened the orange hoodie around his waist and clamped a roll of electrical tape between his teeth, hoping to mend the wire.

"Hey, Paps!" Came a call behind him, which Pap recognised as his brother Sans even without turning. "Are you ready yet?"

Papyrus peeked over his shoulder at where Sans was standing near the door of the shed, wearing his favorite sweater and his signature blue scarf.

Pap squinted. "Going somewhere?"

Sans almost looked offended. "Family brunch at the New NTT Emporium- don't tell me you forgot!"

"Oh. Right." Every month, Sans and Papyrus would meet up with Undyne, Alphys, Asgore and Chara at the Emporium to eat together and see how everyone was doing. Every month it was the same old things; Undyne, a doctor's secretary, couldn't upgrade to a nurse because she was a monster. Alphys couldn't get past the parking meter stage of being a cop, because she was a monster. Asgore was teaching monster kids magic as usual but didn't have the privilege to teach humans because, again, he was a monster. Sans would brag about being a hall moniter in the monster school. Papyrus would deadpan that he still hadn't gotten a job. And lastly was Chara. They would pick at their food and answer vague questions about being the ambassador of monsters.

All in all, the dates were awkward. But they always met up anyway, because it was nice to be in each other's company, and each genuinely wanted to know how the other was doing. Except today. Papyrus really didn't want to go to some awkward lunch today. Not when he was getting so close to fixing his machine...

"Sure, sure, yeah." Papyrus forced a happy tone and stood up, untying his hoodie. "I'm ready. Let's go."

.:|:.

Undyne's firetruck red hair was up in a messy bun, her bangs clipped back with a beaded blue pin. It really brought out her yellow eyes, which glistened in the afternoon sun. The fins on either side of her face were perked out happily as she talked to Alphys beside her; a tough woman with bulging muscles beneath her blue uniform, and a scaly, sandy orange skin to contrast it. Alphy's big, sharp tooth grin quickly became the center of attention every time she bore it, accompanied often by roaring laughter, which in itself was hard to ignore.

Sans stabbed at the fruits on his plate. "I've said it a million times and I'll say it again." He grumbled. "Human food is freakin' _weird_."

"It's good for you. Shovel it down." Papyrus stuck a grape on Sans's fork and the smaller skeleton complained about it. Asgore saw the opportunity and took it.

"Well, you know what they say; It is always important to reap the _fruits_ of your labors!" Asgore winked.

Sans threw his hands into the air. "Agh!"

"Ha ha! Wasn't that _grape_ , Sans?" Papyrus grinned.

While Sans squawked over the puns he was tormented with, Papyrus turned to Asgore. "Where's our prodigy? I haven't seen them since last month."

Asgore's smile faded. His next words were regretful. "They... might not be coming today. They have had a difficult few weeks. They were still in bed when I checked on them this morning, and I did not want to wake them."

Papyrus could understand where he was coming from, but he still felt his heart drop in disappointment. He liked talking to the kid. They always found a way to lighten up the situation. Hearing that they were having a hard time was a little heartbreaking.

"Undyne, have you managed to get that position as a nurse?" Asgore changed the subject rather quickly.

The doctor sucked on her teeth, her demeanor visibly drooping. "...No."

Alphys seemed to know everything about this already and immediately jumped up, eyes aflame with injustice. "She was doing so well, too! She did everything Dr. Rhett asked of her, and _more_ \- she would _request_ extra work to get on his good side! She'd finish it on time and efficiently and when she asked about the position- that he _promised_ her mind you- he went on this whole spiel about 'image' and tried to _educate_ her on 'bad publicity'. Talk about a lying _jerk_!"

"Alphys, dear, it's _okay_..." Undyne tried to calm her down, but Alphys wasn't having it.

"No- It's _not_ okay! I have no idea why humans are just so _uncomfortable_ with monsters doing _anything_! Like, how the station won't let me go out on the field- they wouldn't even give me a gun. But hey, I must be happy cuz I've got a _badge_!" Alphys tossed the leather identification onto the table and sat back with her arms crossed. "It's not even real work I'm doing. I feel more like I'm _roleplaying_."

"It is alright." Asgore attempted to reassure her. "It will not last much longer. Chara is working on a solution, and they have made much progress."

"Yeah, yeah." Alphys muttered.

"Progress?" Undyne asked, resting her chin in her hands. "Like what?"

Asgore paled a little. "Er... Well..."

"Well, for one," a voice cut in. "People are at least getting accustomed to magic."

Heads turned up to the figure standing over them, a familiar green jacket and a signature smile giving them away.

"Look who decided to show up!" Papyrus grinned, holding up a hand for a high five. Chara gave him one and sat down next to Asgore.

.:|:.

Just as Papyrus expected, even with Chara showing up late, the conversations were the same as always. Undyne and Alphys muttering about their positions. Asgore talking about being a schoolteacher. Sans being Sans. Papyrus rattling off puns and Chara not talking a whole lot. Just the same as always.

The brunch ended early when the topics ran out and life beckoned them back into their boring routines. Alphys and Undyne left first. Then Sans. And when Asgore stood up, Chara was very quick to join him.

"I am afraid we must be off." Asgore apologized, gathering his things. "Would you like to join us for tea later, Papyrus? We did not hear very much about your life lately."

"Thanks, Mr. Dad Guy, but I've got something I'm working on."

"Oh?" Asgore seemed surprised.

"Yeah, just a project."

" _You_?" Chara smirked. "A _project_?"

"Yeah, nothing big." Papyrus shrugged. "Just... something to keep me entertained. Welp." He stood up. "I'll be going too. Good seeing you again."

And with that, he teleported away.

When he was gone, Chara felt their smile fade into a frown. Asgore placed a hand on their shoulder. "Come, my child. If you would like, I can help you with your paperwork."

"...Yeah. Okay."


	4. The Machine

WARNING: LOW FUEL

 _Are you kidding me?!_

Papyrus's fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in all sorts of familiar codes and shortcuts. "Come on." He growled at the screen. "You've got to have _something_ left in there. Just a _little_?!"

WARNING: FUEL CRITICALLY LOW. AT RISK OF OVERHEATING.

"Seriously?!" Papyrus yelled, shoving the keyboard back into it's cubby. "There's _nothing_?! What am I even supposed to _use_? It's been _ages_ since he's operated this!"

The machine did not reply.

Papyrus stomped over to the tank, glaring into the emptiness it offered. Completely dry, but that was to be expected, admittedly, as the tank _was_ very small. After all, a little DT went a long way. But even after all this time, there wasn't even the slightest of fumes to get it kicking again? All he needed was ten minutes. _Ten_ _minutes_. Maybe even five.

 _DT will get the machine running again_. That was the _only_ thing that would get the machine running again. There was a compartment for a soul and everything. But getting a soul for that was downright impossible and Papyrus knew it.

Well... it's not _impossible_...

But it did go against his morale in every way possible. He could never bring himself to harvest Chara's soul.

All he needed was a little DT. Just a little. But how on earth could he get 'just a little'? The machine only processed souls of complete DETERMINATION into fuel. Anything else mixed into it would confuse and mess up the machine, perhaps even damage it for good. That ruled out the stupid cat on the mountain, and all the souls of the Amalgamates, even if those weren't on the list in the first place.

 _It has to be pure._

 _Like Chara's,_ Papyrus's brain reminded him again.

Pap returned to the computer, bringing up the data he'd been looking at earlier. _Last timelines accessed: 32; 37._ Papyrus wandered to the search.

 _Input: timeline32/test1-find_

 _Output: timeline0-grey_

It was very specific. Papyrus had seen this plenty of times, and thought he'd finally figured it out. The old man had a couple of test runs before he'd fallen through it himself. Four subjects. Each subject had apparently ended up in the same zone; something called Timeline Zero, or the Gray Zone. It was one of the rarest timelines and it popped up randomly among reloads; at least, that's what the machine told him. An inconsistent mark on the chart, fading in and out of existence. And the worst part? Resets could not pull them from the Gray Zone. Once you were in the Gray Zone... you were stuck there for good.

Papyrus tried something.

 _Input: timeline37/test5/timeline0-grey._ It took a moment for the information to be collected. _Output: ERROR. ENTRY NOT FOUND._

He wasn't in the Gray Zone. So where could he be?

 _Input: timeline37/test5-find_

A couple seconds of processing.

 _Output:..._

 _ERROR_

 _ERROR_

 _ERROR_

Papyrus jerked in surprise as the monitor began filling up with data, listing off thousands upon millions upon _billions_ of codes while the monitor changed color frequently and began glitching up. An alarm began to blare and the computer froze, a big, bold ERROR filling up the entire screen. Behind the screen Papyrus could hear the computer whirring loudly, heating up excessively and even beginning to glow red and start to smoke. Papyrus leapt to the tower next to the machine, unplugging everything on the back all at once. The alarm silenced, but the picture didn't go away.

Papyrus quickly rushed to the computer and opened it up. Smoke poured out and several wires sparked with electricity. Pap jumped away when a jolt lashed out at him. It was fried.

Not only did the computer overload with information, it overheated and practically blew up. Papyrus dragged over a metal wastebin from the corner of the shed and dumped the monitor in. Looks like he'd be needing another computer.

And as for fueling the machine... it was back to the drawing board.


	5. A Red Soul

A week later, as per usual, Chara was apprehended in the school hallway. This time, however, it was a little different.

"You think you're so much better than everyone else, monster boy?" Some football guy from second period snarled, throwing a crumpled up newspaper at where Chara had been tossed onto the floor. Chara caught it with barely a flinch, smoothing it out to look at the pictures. Football guy continued. "Listen dude, you can't go around preaching about monsters just because two or three of them stroked your ego when you were little. You can't _trust_ monsters. You need to _stop this_."

Chara sighed deeply to see their speech from a few nights ago blown up to size within the papers, captioned by the usual, ' _Young Ambassador of Monsters Complaining About Things They Know Nothing About Again_!' or other words that pretty much meant the same thing.

"I'll stop," Chara looked up to meet his eyes. "When your stupid brain stops shrinking tinier than your dick."

The football guy's nostrils flared and he swung his leg like a wrecking ball, his booted foot colliding horribly against Chara's ribs. They were jerked to the side with the force of the blow, and coughed out a yelp as they doubled over. Meanwhile, the guy rushed off down the hall so not to get caught.

Chara gasped in breaths as students scurried to their classrooms, barely giving them a glance. The late bell rang when Chara finally managed to pull themself to their feet, clutching their side. They didn't care about being late, though. They were far too angry to pay attention anyway.

They clutched the newspaper, glaring down at their picture. Storming down the hall toward the front doors, flinching at every step, Chara tore the paper to shreds, and threw it away.

.:|:.

 _Knock knock._

"One second!" Sans shouted from the kitchen, jamming a wooden spatula into the microwave door to keep it shut. Inside, the taco shells were making weird popping sounds. That didn't sound right, but he shrugged anyway and made his way to the front door.

When he opened the door, he was met with the cold stare of a very angry human.

"Do you have any ice?" Chara asked flatly.

"Hi, Chara! Yeah, it's in the freezer! The new one that we got! The brand new freezer!" Sans waved them into the living room. Chara flopped down on the couch without another word, kicking their legs over the armrest.

Sans hummed his theme song as he pulled a footstool up to the fridge, ignoring the insistent whistling coming from the microwave. He reached- _reeeeeeached_!- up to the freezer handle! He pulled it open with the strength of ten skeletons! As the freezer door swung on its hinges, Sans grabbed the bag of ice and pulled- _pullllllled_!- until it fell out of the freezer and right on top of him.

"Oof!" He squeaked. "Got it!"

Meanwhile, the front door opened again, and Papyrus swaggered in, black coating his entire face except for two clean circles around his eyes where goggles might've been. He untied his hoodie from around his waist and patted at random places on his white shirt to smother tiny flames.

"I'm not dead!" He called into the kitchen. Shoving the bag of ice off his back, Sans gave him a thumbs up.

Pap turned to the couch and would've jumped out of his skin if he had any.

"My _lord_ , Chara, what are you doing here?!"

"Need ice." Chara's voice was dull.

"For what? Shouldn't you be in school right now?" Papyrus threw his hoodie onto the floor, making Sans bark an offended ' _Papyrus_!'. "There's a thing called a school nurse."

Chara shrugged stiffly. "A human? Prolly would poison me if given a chance." Their expression darkened. "I _hate_ humans."

"Don't say that, kiddo." Papyrus dropped onto the couch next to them, smiling as he watched Sans drag the bag of ice toward them with great difficulty. "Humans aren't horrible people, they're just misunderstood, yada yada. Things are gonna get better."

"Yeah, that's what ya'll said ten years ago." Chara groaned. "Look at us now! Nothing is better."

Sans tore open the bag of ice and Papyrus scooped out a handful of cubes, wrapping it in one of the shirts lying on the ground. He held it out to Chara.

Chara unzipped their jacket. With the hood of the jacket finally out of the way, Papyrus could see the locket they always wore, more of a choker now, shining ever so slightly in the light of the house. Chara snatched the ice, pressing it to their side through their t-shirt.

"Ow." They deadpanned.

Papyrus twisted the top of the ice bag. "So, you gonna tell us what happened?"

"The usual. I suck at being ambassador."

"That's very specific, thanks. And for the record, you don't _suck_."

"Yeah, I do." Chara argued. "Listen, you guys, I _suck_ because no matter how _hard_ I try, no matter _what_ I do, what I _say_ \- I can't make everyone happy- I can't make anything better for _anyone_!" They sighed shakily. "I can't. I can't do this anymore. You guys chose wrong- I'm not an ambassador, I'm just some annoying kid who 'doesn't know what they're talking about'."

They sat up abruptly, facing away from the brothers.

"...Temmie's still soulless and Mom's in jail... you guys are treated like dirt... Seven humans are still dead... I wish I could fix it. But I can't." Their voice was small. "It hurts."

"You did the best you could," Sans tried to say.

"The best I could." They sighed. "It really wasn't enough. I just wish there was a way to..." They gestured a bit with their hands, looking for the right words. " _Change_ the ending. To _fix_ it."

Papyrus tensed a little.

"But I can't. All I can do is go back to the beginning and do it again. But I'm not going to. It won't change anything. This ending right here; this is the best possible ending. But we're still not happy."

Sans and Papyrus just looked at each other for a moment. They didn't know what to say.

And then the microwave started squealing. A loud popping sound exploded out from the kitchen, and the smoke alarm began to shriek. Sans jumped to his feet.

"My tacos!" He wailed, bolting into the other room.

Amongst the screeching, Chara and Papyrus sat on the couch, only able to gape in awe at Sans trying to put out the fire. A few minutes in, though, Papyrus made a decision. He reached up hesitantly to pat Chara's shoulder.

"Hey... I wanna show you something."

.:|:.

The machine was thick and long, and reached up almost to touch the ceiling of the shed. It reminded Chara of a printer, a steam engine, and one of those old-fashioned cars all combined into one. There were compartments here and there, a tank that was curiously empty, something that looked like a scanner, and a metal box with a picture of a heart scribbled on it.

"Not a heart," Papyrus corrected. "A soul."

It was very hot in the shed, and Chara tied their jacket around their waist like Papyrus had done. They ran their hand along the top.

"What's it for?"

"Well..." Papyrus stepped back to admire his machine. "It's for fixing your ending."

Chara's head turned back to him quickly. "Wh-What?"

"This thing was built by my dad ages ago. He made it to jump timelines. It used to be connected to the Core some time ago... but ever since it ran outta power, it stopped working." Papyrus pulled on a pair of goggles. "I've been fixing it ever since we've left the underground. I'm only missing one thing."

Chara squinted. They tucked loose strands of their hair behind their ear, examining the machine with a skeptical look. "And what are you missing?"

"Determination."

Chara looked back to Papyrus, somewhere between shocked and intrigued. "You need a human soul to power this thing?"

"Not just any soul. A red one. Pure Determination. Nothing else will work." Papyrus nodded. "We only need a tiny bit. But once it's up and running, we can access the full extent of the timelines. Everything and anything. I could bring back my dad. You? You could bring back anyone you want. MK. The souls."

"Frisk?" Chara whispered.

Papyrus felt a clench of uneasiness at the name, but he nodded. "Even Frisk."

Chara looked back at the machine, thinking.

"What's the catch?"

"We'd use your soul." Papyrus sucked in a breath uncertainly. "And... And you could die. That's why this is entirely up to you. Honestly... I'd rather think up another way."

Chara nodded slowly. They turned back to him, but they didn't meet his eyes.

"...You're right. We need to try other things first. Something could go wrong."

"Horribly wrong." Papyrus agreed.

"I don't want to jump into things that could screw with the ending I already have. I want to work with this ending for as long as I can." Chara started off to the door again. They stopped when their hand touched the doorknob.

"Thanks for showing this to me, Pap."


	6. The Breaking Point

"It's smack in the middle of summer and it's _snowing_." Chara laughed a bit, fogging up the window with their warm breath as they watched the cold white flakes float down.

Beside them, Asriel nodded excitedly. "Isn't it _great_? Snow is always good luck."

"Even in the middle of spring?" Chara turned from the window to accept a cup of hot chocolate from Fuku Fire. Asriel took the second cup happily before she strolled back into the kitchen.

Even before monsters moved from the Underground, Asriel had this _thing_ about living with his parents. He had the opportunity presented to him back when Chara moved in with Asriel's father Asgore on the surface, but he strongly refused, instead moving into an apartment with Fuku Fire, an eighteen year old friend. Fuku was fine with this, apparently. She seemed happy to have the company. They were practically siblings now, having grown older alongside one another since then. That didn't make Chara any less confused.

"Even in the spring." Asriel agreed. "That makes it _unexpected_ good luck!"

"Fresh new snow. I guess I know what this means."

"That's right. You can't go home until a path melts away." Asriel grinned. "It's bad luck to step on fresh snow! Takes the magic away."

Fuku came back in again, brushing off her hands. "The weather is lovely and all, but Napstaton said he's be featuring someone new on his show, so I hope you don't mind if I turn on the TV."

"Please do." Chara nodded. "I want to see."

The TV was already turned to the channel once the screen finally lit up, displaying the show just as it began.

"WELCOME BACK, DUDES!" The robot shouted immediately, swinging onto the set in full gear. "WELCOME BACK TO NTV! It's like MTV but better!" He winked at the camera. Chara and Asriel snorted. It was really no wonder people found him so weird. Then again, it wasn't as though anyone but monsters watched him.

"Today we'll be playing twenty songs _consecutively_. No breaks this evening! That's right, dudes, _no ads, no breaks_! That's because our sponsors are... taking a little vacation!" Napstaton's grin suddenly seemed a little sour. "All the better; what's better than _continuous music_? And heeere's the list! We've got Death by Synths again- what a _score_...!"

As Napstaton continued to rattle off music, Chara leaned toward Asriel. "He's losing his sponsors."

"That's not good." Asriel bit his lip. He glanced back outside. "Napstaton needs more good luck snow than we do."

"...and finally, one of my _favorite_ tracks from our very own Happstablook, Glamour Ghoul! Wow! That one'll be the next big hit for sure!" Napstaton gasped, a genuinely excited grin on his face. Leave it to him to show off for his cousin. "And speaking of big hits, we have a very special announcement from a very special guest! Everyone, give a big hand to Miss Muffet!"

Asriel gasped. "Ooh, Muffet! She must be announcing her new Pastry Shop! She finally got the money for it after all that fundraising..."

"You mean the bake sales? She's been at those since... since we left the Underground." Chara felt their smile fade.

"Yeah." Asriel nodded. "That's cuz no one would really buy her things. All the humans found her too intimidating."

"She's been raising money for _ten years_?"

"Pretty much. But she's finally done it. I'm so happy for her!" Asriel smiled.

Chara tried to smile with him, but they couldn't help noticing that onscreen, Muffet's family heirloom- earrings of diamond and garnet- were missing. She never took those off.

.:|:.

The next day, Chara visited the prison much earlier than usual- one o'clock pm. They waved to the guards and the group gathered around the front desk, their conversation interrupted, raised eyebrows in annoyance.

"Little early, aren'tcha? She's at lunch right now. You can't talk. Come back later." The front desk droned.

Chara stood their ground. "I... I'm not leaving until I see her."

One of the guards from the group, with a square jaw and black hair, fiddled with his little radio. "What's with the sudden urgency, kid?"

"I just... I just wanted to ask her something" Chara shrugged stiffly, suddenly feeling out of place. Their speech began to break a little, even though they really had nothing to worry about. "I have an... an appointment at three and I want... I wanted to ask her some questions about leader... uh, leadership and stuff..."

The last one, a female with red hair pulled so tight against her head her eyes bugged, leaned close to Chara and folded her arms.

"Kinda weird you can't just wait a little, huh?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to do my _job_ , lady." Chara bit back.

"Well, if you're going to be such a brat about it, consider today's appointment cancelled."

Chara's eyes widened. "Wha-?!"

"Get out. You're already raising suspicion as it is."

Chara backed up a step, then two, a pleading demeanor shifting to one of anger. Then they turned around and left, slamming the door behind them.

Outside, they folded their arms and tried to take deep breaths, but they couldn't help kicking at the wall. _Stupid humans... Stupid, stupid humans..._ They stomped along the side of the prison until they came to the chain-link fences.

Inside, orange clad inmates were gathered in their own groups, doing their own things. Chara wandered up to the fence, lacing their fingers though a few holes, searching.

Humans and monsters alike seemed to share the area, which was a vast difference from regular society. How funny that a _prison_ would be the place to enforce equality between the two. Chara was almost jealous. Almost.

"Hey you. Kid." Someone called out, and Chara turned. A couple of older humans of varied size and color squinted over at them, inching their way closer. Tattoos crawled up and down their blistered skin, and scars littered the places in between as though to fill in the blanks. Chara's hand fell from the fence warily.

The leader- a brutish man with a foggy eye and an impressive mustache- gave Chara a look. "Got a problem, kid?"

"Looking for someone." Chara muttered. "It's not important."

The man chuckled lowly. "Aw, whatsa matter? We can help you look for 'em!" The tone of his voice made it clear that probably wasn't a good idea.

"No thanks."

"A'ight. A'ight." The man put up his hands. "I get it. You a good kid. You don' talk to strangers. Smart. But lemme ask you sumthin. You believe in respectin the elderly?"

Chara glanced from him to his crew, still on guard. "Well... sure...?"

"Then." The man pointed with a calloused finger past Chara. "Bring us that there bottle o' spirits. Sumbody threw it in a fit 'tother day. I'd like to get me hands on it. Consider it an act o' kindness for a man in need."

Chara glanced over their shoulder and sure enough, a couple feet away lie a cracked glass bottle, still half full.

 _Whatever_. Chara sighed. _It's not like their situation can get any worse._

Chara scooped it up and held it out. The man nodded and beckoned with his hand. "Put it throughs the fence so I can get it."

So Chara did, shoving it through the holes. However, when their wrist managed to pass the chain-

 _Snatch_!

Chara yelped and staggered a bit, their wrist locked in the tight grip of the man. One of his crew pried the bottle from their hand as the leader flicked open a switchblade.

"Chara Dreemurr." The man snorted, his remaining eye sharp and menacing. "I knows who you are. All over the news, tryna convince the general public that those _hideous creatures_ are the _good guys_." He jabbed a thumb over to a monster inmate. By now, Chara's desperate straining had attracted a chunk of attention from the other prisoners, prompting them closer. The man continued. "But they ain't the good guys. They popped off more of our kind than any human here had in their whole life. But you- You _care_ about them for _some reason_... You been yappin around, tryna make your mark..." His switchblade found its way up to Chara's arm. "Well, I'm gonna make my _own_ mark. A mark I can see with my own eye _every time_ you show up on TV again."

"Wa-Wait!" Chara stammered, trying desperately to yank away. "Stop!"

And then suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a blur of white slammed into the man, jerking him violently away from Chara and ripping their arm from his grasp. There was a loud _crash_ as the two inmates hit the ground, and plenty of dust and dirt kicked up in their wake. Chara looked on with wide eyes, clenching their throbbing arm close, trying to get a good look at the attacker. Then they saw it.

"Mom!" They shouted anxiously, a bucket of ice water seeming to pour down their spine. "M-Mom, get away from them!"

Toriel flung herself to her feet, back to the fence, her arms held out to her sides, glowing with fire magic. Her fingers crackled threateningly, and around her wrists Chara saw that her binds had been snapped. Her muzzled snout prevented her from snarling out any coherent speech, but the message she was conveying was ever so clear. _Back away from the child._

The men had backed off a ways, but they did not run. In fact, the leader, now bleeding heavily from the nose, just grinned.

¨There she is. There's the precious _queen_."

And that's when all hell broke loose.

* * *

 **We get a better look at the Dreemurrs, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you have any comments or questions, don't forget to hit that review button! They're always appreciated! And don't forget to follow/favorite to stay updated on further chapters. Enjoy the read!**

 **-DFTM**


	7. A Partner

The police station contacted Asgore only a half hour after Chara had left to visit Toriel, demanding he come to the station, which immediately worried him. He waited for the station to hang up first, making sure there was nothing else they needed to tell him, before grabbing his keys and rushing out to the car.

The drive was tense, a whole twenty minutes of worst-case-scenarios running through his head like a horror film made up of terribly cut scenes, every one of which his child ended up with an missing limb or worse.

When he finally pulled up to the station, he immediately noticed the ruckus going on inside the fenced area. Prisoners ran left and right looking anxiety-ridden while guards grouped together around a particular spot on the ground. He spared it thirty seconds glance before hurrying into the station, the fresh snow along the path crunching ominously beneath his feet.

Chara sat alone at a wooden table in the lobby, staring into their enclosed hands and looking very shaken. Asgore ignored the summons of the guards at the front desk and immediately rushed to kneel at Chara's side.

"Chara, my child, what is this?" Asgore's words seemed to jumble together as he examined the kid from head to toe, checking for any injuries or trauma. The only trauma seemed to be in their eyes, dilated and not quite focused. "What is going on? What happened?"

"The big lady he comes to see every week finally snapped. She started attacking the other prisoners. The infliction she dealt could've been deadly." The redheaded woman in the corner muttered. "We had no other choice than to-"

"They killed her." Chara's voice was barely a whisper.

"We did what we had to." The square-jawed man's squinted eyes glared the two of them down. "Wouldnt've happened if that brat hadn't provoked the inmates."

Chara looked up angrily, like they wanted to say-or rather, shout- something, but Asgore cut them off.

"I am sorry for the disturbances that Chara may have caused." It was a dutifully repeated line that Asgore had used countless times over the past ten years. It was a polite apology to keep arguments at bay. Ninety five percent of the time Asgore used this apology, Chara hadn't even been in the wrong.

"Pretty sucky disturbances, yeah." The front desk said loudly, giving Chara a cold stare as he said it. "But I'm going to enjoy not having to deal with him every week anymore."

Asgore stood up, taking Chara's arm. He nodded curtly to the guards.

"And I suppose I am as well."

.:|:.

The drive home was just as tense as the drive up, only this time, Asgore was accompanied by a very frustrated, very shaken teenager.

"They killed Toriel." Asgore finally broke the silence. The sentence felt strange on his tongue and sent a weird feeling to his heart, as though he should be upset by this, but just couldn't feel the proper emotions for it.

More could be said for Chara, however, but this was not in their favor. Their arms clenched close to them, they grit their jaw and looked down at their knees. Droplets began to collect in the corners of their eyes. They seemed to be having a hard time keeping themself together.

"I saw it. Right in front of me." Their voice was getting hoarser, as though their throat was closing up. They cleared it loudly and looked away without another word.

Asgore bit his lip, eyes kept forward. He remembered all the way back, Underground, when he had felt this exact pain. The emptiness plowed into him by the death of MK, and Frisk. So long ago that Chara themself had yet to be born.

But this; the death of his ex-wife? How could he feel nothing? Was it that he simply hadn't seen her for so long? Or had he stopped caring the moment he left that castle?

Nonetheless, he reached out and took Chara's shoulder.

Chara covered their eyes and turned their head away.

.:|:.

In the shed, Papyrus looked over the fuel tank, examining the interior and wondering whether he could attempt using his soul instead. Maybe he could work up some Determination of his own, just like Alphys did in the bad timeline so long ago. But he knew it wouldn't work. That was a stupid idea.

The door creaked open and Sans peeked inside.

"You doin' your project again, Pap?"

"As always."

If Sans had lips Papyrus figured his brother would be chewing them off right bout now. Sans asked, "Do you think you'll be done soon?"

Papyrus shrugged halfheartedly. He'd been asking himself the same question for the past ten years. Automatically, he answered, "Sure. Almost."

"...Good." Sans tapped his fingers on the doorframe. "The house is kinda lonely nowadays. It'd be nice to see you 'round the house again. Even just lying around. So... When you're done..."

Papyrus turned to face his brother. Sans shrugged a little.

"Ah, forget it!" Sans started up with a bit of a livelier voice this time. It seemed forced. "I'm sure whatever you're doing is really important. I'll letcha get back to it."

And he left, the door clicking shut behind him.

Papyrus felt a sigh build up in his chest. He let it go very slowly over the course of twenty seconds, just thinking. The project had eaten away at most of his schedule, and in turn, his social life sank. One half of him simply didn't care. The other half of him cared far too much.

He slowly picked up where he left off, trying to formulate a plan for what he could use as fuel.

And then, suddenly-

 _BANG BANG BANG!_ The door shook with every blow dealt to it. Papyrus jumped. That couldn't be Sans, could it? Unless his brother was finally fed up with Pap once and for all and he'd come back to chew him out. Somehow that didn't seem like the likeliest option.

"Right here! One sec!" Papyrus called uncertainly, shoving himself away from the machine to stumble toward the door. Who on earth could this be? No one knew about the back shed; it was fairly hidden and out of the way. The only people who really knew it existed was Papyrus and Sans, and...

He opened the door, standing face to face with two familiar red eyes and a ponytail of messy hair.

"Papyrus," Chara's voice was grated with an intimidating air of vengeance, the corners of their eyes stained pink, as though they'd been crying. "I'm taking you up on your offer. I want to use the machine."


	8. Blood

"So how does this work? You'll be needing this, won't you?" Chara demanded, and without hesitation, summoned their soul out in front of them.

It wavered into existence within the palms of their hands, burning red and casting an ominous glow across Chara's face and arms. They were the only known human who knew how to do that. Papyrus figured they'd spent so much time with resets and saves that it just came naturally to them now.

Papyrus backed up a step, eyes flicking from the burning red heart to Chara's face several times. He couldn't deny a faint temptation eating at him from the inside. He tried to smother it. "Chara... we've already established that we're not using your soul. You could die."

"So? You made it very clear that the only stuff that'll fuel this thing is pure Determination. And this hunk of metal here can bring back Toriel. It can bring back MK, and Frisk, and _everyone_!" Chara's fingers twitched a little around their soul and they stepped closer to Papyrus. "So let's _do_ it! We can do it. We can make a better ending."

"Yes, we can. But we can do it another way. We'll use something else."

"Like _what_? Tell me. In ten years, have you found _anything else_ capable of running that thing?!"

"Well, no, but... wait... Toriel? What happened to Toriel?"

Chara twitched again, suddenly looking like a cornered cat. Their soul wavered in their now trembling hands. As Papyrus watched, they backed up against the wall and let their arms fall to their sides, leaving the glowing red soul to hover in the air, radiating a slight warmth that Papyrus could feel a couple feet away. _A couple feet away. The end of all my hard work._

"Dust." Chara's voice was barely audible, and Papyrus's attention was torn from the soul to that singular word. He understood immediately and felt his breath steal away- just for a moment, though, because Chara soon looked up again, gaze hard. "But we can make things right again."

Papyrus held up his hands quickly to stop them from saying anything else. He reached past Chara to shut the shed door and took their shoulder, leading them further inside. He was careful not to touch that soul.

"Okay, okay. Kid. Listen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Toriel, I- I really am. But sacrificing your _soul_ to this machine, it- that's a big deal. Don't jump into that until you're _absolutely_ _sure_ -."

 _Beep beep beep beep beep!_

The soft beeping melted apprehension into confusion, and the both of them turned their heads to the monitor of the machine. The screen offered visual of a blinking green light a bold text in a strange language that Chara didn't understand. But Papyrus could.

 **PURE DETERMINATION DETECTED** , the machine blinked excitedly, and Papyrus felt his eyes turn back to Chara's soul, still suspended in front of them. The kid felt his gaze and self-consciously brought their hands to it again.

"Put that away." Papyrus instructed, and Chara's defiance only last a second or two before they gave in, allowing the heart to dissipate. The beeping stopped abruptly.

The distraction taken care of, Papyrus picked up where he left off. "You're our _ambassador_ , Chara. If anything were to go wrong, it'd only make things worse for all of us."

" _Make things worse?_ We've already hit rock bottom, Papyrus! We have nothing else to lose. They've already killed Toriel. If they can kill Toriel, they can kill _anyone_ \- Asriel, Sans, Undyne, Asgore, _you_!" Chara was pleading now. "I don't want to sit around and wait until that happens. Not when I can do something about it _now_."

They whisked past Papyrus and began to gesture wildly at the machine. "This thing needs pure Determination and it'll make everything right, _right_? It's so _simple_! So just tell me where I need to put the soul and- _ow_!"

Their hand had gotten too close, grazing against one of the sharper parts that stuck out of the machine. Blood flicked out onto the floor and Chara grabbed their injured hand close, flexing their fingers a few times and hissing in pain. " _Dammit_!"

"Geez, are you okay?" Papyrus opened their hand again to take a closer look. A messy red line cut diagonally across all four fingers, slightly jagged and beginning to bleed heavily. Chara swore again, this time a word Asgore would definitely not approve of.

"Hang on, I'll..." Papyrus began, but he stopped abruptly when he noticed the faint sound coming from the monitor.

 _Beep beep beep beep beep beep!_

Chara and Papyrus looked at each other, then over at the monitor.

 **PURE DETERMINATION DETECTED.**

Chara's eyes widened a little, confused. They looked around to see if their soul was out again, but it wasn't. "Wha...? Why is it doing that? Is it broken?"

Papyrus shook his head, forlorn. "No, it's in perfect working order. Apparently it can sense pure DT right now, which doesn't make sense because there's no exposed DT around here that it should be able... to... sense..."

Then he stopped, and his gaze fell down to Chara's hand.

.:|:.

"Think it'll work?" Chara asked, wincing again at the needle in their arm. A steady drip continued to flow into the flask Papyrus had set up, which was incredible, since Papyrus hadn't ever set up any sort of IV before and hadn't been expecting it to work.

Collecting blood from Chara's injury would've been much easier, but it was out of the question, since that blood was likely to have been tainted when Chara's hand was cut.

The blood needed to be clean. Papyrus was ecstatic to find a safe way to acquire Determination and there was no room for error- not even the tiniest bit.

"It'll work. It has to." Papyrus nodded, but to be honest, he did have his doubts. It was blood, after all. It carried all sorts of different elements; oxygen, plasma, iron, protein. Even if it did hold DT, there was no way it was _pure_... was it? It didn't really matter, it seemed. The machine had read it as pure Determination, and if the machine deemed it worthy, then by the stars, Papyrus would too.

"Got enough yet?" Chara huffed impatiently, looking pointedly at the flask. Already it held about a shot's glass amount of deep, dark red. "This stupid thing _hurts_ , and you said you only needed a little bit!"

"I'm not taking chances." Papyrus muttered, but he reached over anyway, pressing a wet cloth to the area as he removed the needle. Chara immediately jerked their arm back and flexed it a few times, wincing. " _Ow_."

They stilled, though, when Papyrus held up the flask.

"Here it is." Papyrus breathed, and he couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. He glanced back to Chara. "Ready for test one?"

Chara bit the inside of their cheek, looking a little doubtful. But they nodded.

Papyrus carefully mixed the blood with a clear solution and waited for it to glow. The traces of DT inside the blood were very minimal- where Chara's soul flickered like a bonfire this flask only cast the dimmest glow of a candle- but it held its fair share of power all the same.

Papyrus opened up the small fuel tank and poured the contents inside. The clear solution that had made the blood glow had volumized the sample from a shot's glass amount to a full cup, giving the machine more than enough to run on. That is, if it would accept this as a fuel source.

A few flicks of a few switches sent lights all over the machine ablaze, blinking erratically and making loud whirring sounds. Chara backed up a step in awe as the machine came to life.

The monitor was beeping again. Papyrus checked the screen.

 **WELCOME, DOCTOR** , the computer greeted in its usual bright green font. **FUEL LOW. DT RESOURCES WILL PROVIDE -001- JUMP.**

"It's working." Papyrus whispered. "It's _working_."

Chara found their place beside him, eyeing the strange font curiously. "What does it say?"

"We, uh, we only have enough for- um, for one jump." Papyrus stuttered, words jumbling together as he tried to calm his excitement. "Bu-But this is _great_! We-We can bring them back! We can _fix_ things!"

Chara's face lit up, a wide smile painting their face. "Well _do_ it- do it now! Bring back MK!"

Papyrus's fingers were already flying over the keyboard, but he was not entering the code for MK. Instead, he entered the code of something far more familiar.

 _Input: timeline37/test5-enter-timelinecurrent_

 _Bring him home._ Papyrus thought determinedly. And then he grabbed the lever under the fuel tank and yanked it to the left.

At first, everything was working. Everything was working astonishingly well; the machine whirred and hissed as it searched the timelines, all of which were piling up on the monitor, disappearing off the screen just as soon as they appeared in order to make room for the next page of timelines. A sliding door on the side of the machine became very apparent as a white glow began to shine from the cracks. That's where he would come through when he came back, Papyrus knew. Papyrus would see him walk through that door once again after _eons_ of timelines _._

The machine was working.

And then it exploded.

It was as sudden and just as powerful as a grenade, bursting outward as something overheated or slipped from the inside. It threw both Papyrus and Chara back in a slew of fire and machine parts, slamming everything against the walls at what felt like the speed of sound. Overwhelming waves of heat washed over them as the machine began to burn.

"No, no _no no no_!" Papyrus shrieked, clawing at the wall in his attempt to get back on his feet. He began running left and right, grabbing his water bottle, a bucket of soapy water he'd used to clean this machine, some day old Gatorade- anything to put out this flame. He tossed the liquid over the fires but it did nothing. If anything, the flames seemed to crackle higher than before.

" _Don't do this to me!_ " Papyrus shouted desperately. " _Don't you dare do this to me! I've worked too hard for this!_ "

The machine did not reply, save for the odd pop that burst from the wires inside. Papyrus fell to his knees.

"Pa-Papyru..."

Papyrus quickly turned around, suddenly remembering the kid.

They were clutching their jacket closed, hunched over where they leaned against the wall. Red stained their forehead, as well as one of their arms and one of their legs. Clearly they hadn't gone unscathed from the shower of shrapnel. Papyrus quickly stumbled back to his feet, rushing over to them.

"He-Hey, whoa, you okay?" Papyrus barely had time to search them over before they collapsed. "Ah-Chara!"

On the ground, Chara shivered and coughed. Blood was beginning to pour from the sides of their mouth. Despite the temperature of the shed, their face was very pale- the natural blush from their cheeks completely gone. Papyrus quickly opened up their jacket to inspect the damage.

A large piece of the machine was embedded right through their sternum.

"Oh shi-" Papyrus felt a cold jolt of lighting send his body into tremors. "Ho-Hold on, kid, I can get an ambulance here, okay? _Okay_?" Papyrus tried to keep them awake, feeling his bones turn to ice. "Hey-hey, hang on!"

But the light was fading from their eyes even now. Their breath came hitched and their injured hand grabbed Pap's wrist, tightening with a strength Papyrus didn't know they had.

"Take... soul." They had a firm voice among their raspy breaths. "Fix... end."

"When was your last save? Go back to that!" Papyrus continued as though he hadn't heard, realizing human medicine could not save them now. He lowered his voice to the calmest tone he could and promised, "I won't get mad at you if you reset. Just don't die on me, Chara."

"Pap." Chara gripped his wrist again, so hard it almost snapped. "Fix... end."

Papyrus didn't answer. He couldn't answer. He only stared in horror as the kid coughed again, harshly, seeming to submerge them in immense pain. They shook out a shuddering breath, one more time, and fell limp against his shoulder.

For just a second, time stopped. Papyrus couldn't feel a thing.

When it started up again, what could only be hyperventilation was sweeping his body.

 _Damn it, damn it...!_ He was shaking with fear. This wasn't supposed to happen. What if Chara didn't reset? Could they even reset anymore? Was this the end for them? Where was their soul? This was all his fault, this was all his fault this was all his fault this was all his fault...!

A red glow washed over them. Papyrus quickly looked up just then to see Chara's soul suspended above them.

He waited for a moment, completely breathless. He waited for it to blink and sweep the ground from under them, to take them to the last save.

But it didn't.

 _Nothing_ _was_ _happening_.

He waited a moment more before he laid Chara down carefully and stood up, clutching his skull and trying to think. Think think _think_! What could he _do_?

In his desperation he scanned the machine. Everything was demolished... Everything was destroyed... except for the fuel tank. It was still in one piece.

The fuel tank and the monitor...

He had an idea.

He snatched the tank and broke the computer tower away from the machine before the flames could eat that up as well, and he bent wires, cables and plugs to connect the tower to the tank. He hooked up the monitor and waited impatiently for it to turn on.

 _Beep beep beep beep beep!_ The monitor squeaked. **PURE DETERMINATION DETECTED.**

Papyrus looked back at the soul. He couldn't touch it or he'd accidentally absorb it. Carefully, he brought the tank to the soul, closing the lid on top of it. The monitor went crazy, listing billions more timelines and almost crashing. Papyrus quickly rerouted the screen to the input page.

 _Input: timelinecurrent/load-timelinebefore_

He had no idea if this would work. But it was the closest thing to resetting he could think of. He grabbed the last two wires, holding their sparking metallic tips only an inch apart.

"Bring back Chara. Let us sort this out. _Let me fix this."_

He held his breath and touched the wires.

* * *

 **At last, we've finally come to the first reset! Now remember, questions, comments, or even a simple 'wassup' is always greatly appreciated so go ahead and leave a review! Make sure you follow/favorite to keep updated on further chapters! Have fun and enjoy the read!**

 **-DFTM**


	9. PART TWO

**PART TWO**

 **Rewritten**


	10. Something Strange

Something Papyrus noticed immediately when he jerked awake was that he was in his own room.

That in itself was a sign something was off. Ever since he'd began fixing the machine, he'd slept in the 'crash room' in the shed. The 'crash room' was just a refurnished closet; an eight by six space with no windows that used to hold a bunch of gardening tools before they were tossed out in favor of a bare twin mattress and a little space heater. It was much easier for Papyrus when he worked late into the night and was too tired to teleport to his room. Of course, he soon became too lazy for even that. He'd not slept in his own bed in ages.

That wasn't all that was strange, though. The layout of his room was different. His bed faced the door instead of the right wall as it always had since they touched the Surface. There were a few tables stacked with dishes that he didn't remember setting up. Old clothes were scattered on the ground; clothes he'd thrown away ages ago.

There was a window on the wall from which white light spilled in, offering a time of, perhaps, ten or eleven in the morning. It was snowing out. Not hard, but heavy.

He groaned from where he'd sat up. The mattress was a queen, which was admittedly nicer than the twin in the shed. He felt as though he'd slept a century, though, being groggy and uncoordinated, but the worst part had to have been the sickening symptoms of a nasty hangover. He vaguely wondered if he'd been to Grillby's bar last night.

He forced himself to his feet and staggered a little, leaning heavily against the wall. He tried to remember what happened last night. He tried to remember why he was confused.

He managed to drag himself to the door and turn the knob. He lost his footing as he tried to step out, falling rather ungracefully into the hallway with a loud _thump_.

"Papyrus? Are you awake?" A familiar voice called from downstairs. It was a squeaky and innocent sounding voice; one Papyrus would know anywhere.

"Mm hmm. Ow." Papyrus hissed a little as he pulled himself back to his feet. "Mornin' Sans."

Sans's little round head peeked up at Papyrus on the landing from where he'd just left the kitchen. He had a confused look in his wide blue eyes. "You're _awake_? But it's not even three yet!"

Papyrus waved the comment away, massaging his throbbing skull. That was an exaggeration, even for him. "Ha and ha, bro. You're so funny."

But Sans wasn't really listening anymore. He had on an apron and a pair of oven mitts, which was funny since they didn't own an oven. "This is _great_!" He babbled excitedly. "We can finally have a _together breakfast_! Oh man, Paps, you are going to love breakfast tacos- come down! Come eat!"

Pap felt like he was missing something. His brother was acting a little weird today. But he brushed it off and headed downstairs. He glanced over the lack of curtains on the living room windows and didn't even register that the TV was playing rather dated Napstaton music. He flopped down on the couch, staring up at the strangely different-than-usual ceiling and trying to figure out what he was missing.

 _Last night I... turned on the machine?_ Papyrus began to remember. _Yeah. But how did I do that? The only way the machine will work is with pure Determination._

Papyrus's head hurt just to think about something as complex as the machine. Sans's cheerful humming from the kitchen wasn't helping either.

 _But I turned it on. So I had to have gotten DT from somewhere. Where could I have...?_

And suddenly, he bolted upright, a bucket of ice pouring down his spine.

 _Chara_.

And just like that, he'd kicked on his slippers and threw himself out the front door, not even sparing a second glance for Sans, who was screeching in surprise from the kitchen.

He stumbled as his slippers sank into the deep snow. He didn't remember it being that deep. white flakes drifted in front of his eyes and blurred the scenery around him. Still, he squinted all around anxiously, searching for the road. The road the Dreemurrs took to their house. He had to get there, ask Asgore if the kid had reset yet, if everything was okay-

OOMPH!

All he got was a faceful of snow as he fell once again, flat on his face.

"Yeesh, Papyrus, are you okay?"

Someone's tiny hands grabbed at Pap's arms, heaving him into a sitting position. Papyrus shook his head, trying to clear his senses. Standing in front of him was a bunny woman, maybe five foot even, with pretty, bright red eyes, a blue bow and a tight-fitting green sweater. Clinging to her arm was a slightly smaller bunny child with a twitching nose, a leash dangling from around his waist.

"You look terrible." The bunny woman made _tsk_ ing noise with her mouth. Papyrus felt like he should know her. She scanned him up and down for a second, then smiled mischievously. "Are you trying to hint something with that getup? You know I'm only free on Tuesdays, you tease."

And that's when Papyrus realized he was missing a great portion of his clothing.

In no time he'd fled back into the house, past a concerned Sans, up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door with a _bang_.

 _Great! Just great!_ His cheekbones burned as he yanked on his orange hoodie and a pair of sweats. But he couldn't help remembering through his headache the scenery outside. That was horribly familiar, but he didn't know why. He sauntered over to the window and squinted out. That wasn't what he should be seeing...

Then it hit him.

"Oh my..." Papyrus paled as it finally clicked. "We're back. We're back Underground."

Ten years. _Ten years_. Ten years, pulled out from under them. After ten years on the Surface, enduring so much pain and sacrifice to get to where they'd been... It was all gone. And now everyone had to do it again.

 _Where's Chara?_ Papyrus yanked on his shoes and tried to remember the basic map of the Snowdin forests. He needed to check around, see exactly _where_ Chara had saved last. For all he knew, either Chara was fighting Toriel _right now_ or they were just waking up in the Ruins.

In any case, _they_ were definitely the one who would have gone through the biggest transition. Papyrus doubted he'd even recognize eight year old Chara anymore after so many years...

Sans's voice came from outside the door. "Pap? What's the matter? You okay in there? I've never seen you run that fast in my life!"

Papyrus never answered him. He'd already teleported to his station near the Ruins.

The crooked lamp was bent sadly in the snow, colors of purple and blue very hard to miss against stark white. Papyrus glanced away from it to look at his station... very weathered, a bit soggy even, with its roof sagging like a hammock. It was very bare. There were no signs that Papyrus had used this at all in his life... but that didn't make any sense.

Feeling a little weirded out, Papyrus began rushing in the direction of the Ruins. When he came to the door at last, he raised a bony fist and rapped on it with everything he had.

"Hey! Hey As-! Um, Mr. Door Guy!" He remembered he wasn't supposed to know Asgore's name yet. He continued to bang on the door, yelling. But nobody came. No deep, concerned voice, no return knocking, no shuffling of huge furry feet. And certainly no Chara.

If Pap had lips he'd be biting them off. If Asgore wasn't responding, it most likely meant Chara had already come through here. So he turned around and began searching the path back to Snowdin- the whole path, including the hidden places along the way, and the bridges, and the various puzzles that littered the forest. Papyrus felt his confusion increase when he saw none of the puzzles had been activated... or even looked as though they'd been used in _years_.

It was very empty in the forest as well, devoid of life. Even the dog sentries were gone, no trace left behind- not even a pawprint left to their names.

This all looked wrong. Something was going on here.

As he stumbled back into town, Sans rushed up to meet him at the sign, blue scarf flapping behind him. He grabbed Pap's sleeves, looking concerned.

"Papyrus, what's the matter? Is something wrong?"

"Yes!" Papyrus answered irritably, feeling his anxiety increase. All of this was so extremely _weird_. "What the heck happened to all your puzzles? What happened to my post? Where are all the dogs?"

Sans squinted a little. "Wha...? The puzzles in the forest? Your post? What _dogs_?"

"Sans, did a human come through here?"

"What-! A _human_?! Where?!" And just like that, he perked up into his old Sansy self. He began looking all around through the falling snow. "What does it look like?! How'd you know it was a human?!"

Chara wasn't here? Chara hadn't passed through? This made Papyrus even more frustrated.

Papyrus leaned closer to Sans to see him through how fast the snow was falling. "Listen. I'm going to Waterfall to talk to Alphys."

Sans gave him a funny look. "Alphys doesn't live in Waterfall, Pap."

"What?"

"And you want to talk to her at this time? She's training the princes right now. She's gonna be really busy."

"The _princes_?!"

" _Yes_!" Sans sounded exasperated. "Prince Kid and Prince Asriel. And where did you say you saw that human?! We haven't seen any of those since the Great War!"


	11. Out of the Woods

Three days.

Four days.

Five days.

Time continued. Time was actually moving forward in a way Papyrus had no idea how to predict. Everything everyone did or said was completely in character... but completely out of the ordinary. Completely different.

People were older. The kids that played Humans' and Monster back near the river were almost teenagers now, and the bunny woman who walked her younger brother on a leash now held his hand, as he reached her shoulder in height. The Inkeeper's now adult child helped her check people in. The old grannies who ran the Library have long since turned to dust and were replaced by the scarf mouse and her tall friend. The bear who laughed about politics now had a decent-length gray beard. Snowdrake hosted stand up comedy around the Underground, and people asked for autographs when they saw him.

It was almost as though... It was almost as though they'd grown up down here, without Chara. As if the ten years had gone by, and they'd never even left the Underground.

With this said, apparently Sans didn't train with the Royal Guard anymore. Been there, done that, got bored, tried new things. Instead he'd been dedicating his time to knitting scarves and selling to the people around Snowdin. He was very famous for it... and still infamous for terrible cooking. Apparently he wasn't close friends with Alphys anymore, either. He 'hadn't hung out with her properly' in five years. She lived up in New Home with the Royal Guard and trained the _princes_?

Papyrus attempted to collect information on the princes. Hearing Prince Asriel actually lived with his parents was news enough without the bombshell that his older adopted brother, Kid, was actually still alive. There was no information regarding Frisk, though, no matter who Papyrus would ask. According to everyone else, there was never a 'Frisk' living among the royal family. It was as though _Frisk never existed_.

In retrospect, not a lot was said about the princes, and he was never able to see them in person. No one went in or out of the castle very often, and if they did they were heavily guarded. Papyrus wondered why they would need to be guarded. Everyone in the Underground was so nice; they would never dream of hurting the royal family...?

Even now, as he banged on the door to the Ruins for the one-hundred and thirty seventh time, he was confused. Nobody answered, as usual. He didn't expect Asgore anymore. But even if Asgore didn't live there, _someone_ had to hear him; Froggit, Whimsun, Vegetoid, Moldsmol, Loox. But there was only dead silence, and an ominous echoing with every knock.

Six days.

Seven days.

Eight days.

A big chunk of his life was missing. The Papyrus that this strange new timeline had shaped was in every way different than he ever knew he could be. Papyrus himself had grown up in his timeline knowing of humans, seeing them cross his path every once in a while, watching them die, feeling fear, then confliction, then regret, then nothing at all. The existential crisis that tormented him through these experiences had shaped him into a nihilistic bastard who slept all day and wouldn't even care to watch the world burn. Experiences with Chara and their Resets only made things worse. He was sick of repeating things. He was sick of everything going wrong, resetting, and then everything going right, resetting, and then everything going wrong again. He worked through depression, anxiety, and then suicidal tendencies. He was a mess in every respect.

This Papyrus... nothing like that had ever happened to him. He was still messy, still lazy, still comical, but it was less in the sense he used it as a coping device, and more like he couldn't be bothered to be anything different. Like he was a teenager that never matured all the way. He could tell just by the way others acted around him that he was the town _bad boy_. He picked up on stories of vandalism and knowing smirks thrown his way. People talked of a smart-mouthed stranger that had been jailed five times just because he could. There wasn't a single person in town over the age of eighteen that he hadn't slept with, and although he knew very well he wasn't the one that did that, or even remembered it, he could tell just by the way people became flustered at the sight of him, or scoffed in contempt, or looked off uncomfortably.

It was not what he expected. It was not what he asked for. But with so many years apparently under his belt he couldn't just start acting like a saint- people would think he was crazy. He needed to keep it cool and try to ride this strange timeline out until he could get an idea of what was going on.

Nine days.

Ten days.

Eleven days.

Nobody came out of the Ruins. No matter how many times Papyrus hit that door. People who inhabited the forest and Snowdin alike came up to him with comments on not seeing him around as often. They made requests of attending parties, coming to their houses, coming to _his_ house. Papyrus declined.

He was nervous. he was worried. He was terrified of what could've happened to the humans, to Chara.

 _Twelve days..._

 _Thirteen days..._

 _Fourteen days..._

Any day now.

 _Fifteen..._

 _Sixteen..._

 _Seventeen..._

Please... any day now...

 _Eighteen..._

 _Nineteen..._

 _Twenty..._

 ** **Where are they?****

.:|:.

After one whole month, Papyrus gave up.

.:|:.

He made a stroll through the woods, looking out for that mouse girl. She said she'd be here, near the big oak in the center of the snowy forest. He was tired of waiting. Tired of being tense and uptight. He'd waited a month for the kid. They should have been here by now. And if no other human had fallen, he supposed Chara must not have fallen either. Now he just had to deal with this new timeline... this was his life now.

At least this life had a few things going for him. If anything, Other Papyrus had the right idea about getting around. Even if Pap himself hadn't had a hookup in half a year, he remembered how much stress they could take off a man. That and they were always a great distraction from crappy situations. And the girl seemed happy to oblige.

She was late. He leaned against the tree and pulled out another cigarette, using the ember of the one he already had to light the new one. Other Papyrus had so many packs of these things that if he was human, he'd be dead by now. Pap himself had never been a chainsmoker- at least, not like this- but all the stress of the past week really worked his nerves to the point he burned four packs a day. He never used to have this habit. _I guess this is one dog you can teach new tricks,_ Papyrus thought with a small grunt.

He took a long pull from the fresh one, allowing the old one to fall to the ground, quickly extinguished by the snow. The smoke that escaped his mouth lingered around his head for a few minutes, obscuring his vision, but for what he could see, someone was making their way through the trees. He caught some brown and some dark green. _Good, she made it._

He stepped out of the shadows, hoping to surprise her. However, the person who stopped abruptly two feet in front of him was not the mouse girl.

Their hair was tied back, but clearly not attended to- stray strands escaped and flicked around their face, and dry, red leaves and traces of dirt were stuck within the ponytail. Dirt smudged their pale face and their rumpled, torn green jacket. They held a jagged stick that looked as worn as they were. Jeans were muddy, boots were scuffed. But there was a familiar fire in their red eyes that Papyrus could never forget.

"AAGH!" Chara screeched, flying backwards and slipping on slush, tumbling rather ungracefully into the snow.

" _Chara_!" Papyrus leapt forward without another thought, falling to his knees beside them and snatching them into a rib-crushing hug. They had a peculiar warmth to their skin and they smelled like dead vegetation.

 _They're here, they're okay, they've finally come back_... Papyrus paid no attention to Chara struggling against his grip. He paid no attention to Chara's muffled shouts, the shoving, the hitting-

Chara's fist connected harshly against his cheekbone. A dull ache blossomed on contact, and Papyrus's grip loosened in surprise.

" _Get off me! Get off me! Get off!_ " Chara shouted, shaking out of Pap's grip and pulling back their legs- _smack_! Kicked Papyrus onto his back, effectively knocking the air out of his metaphorical lungs.

Chara was back on their feet in a heartbeat, stumbling backward uncoordinatedly, holding the stick point out to Papyrus. There was fear on their face.

Papyrus sat up quickly, rubbing his chest where Chara had kicked him. As he shoved himself to his feet, anger and shock pushed its way up his throat. He hadn't seem them since they reset and this is how they greeted him? " _Chara, what the hell_?!"

"Stay away!" Chara warned with a trembling voice. As Papyrus looked at them, he could see they were shaking- not with cold, or even with fear, but as though they were having a hard time standing up. They looked really bad. Really weak.

"Chara?" Papyrus felt concern surface over his irritation. He tried to calm them down. "Chara, it's me."

"I don't know _who_ you are! Stay away from me!" Chara's voice was hoarse. They were moving sideways, trying to circle around Papyrus. He stepped in their way, arms outstretched.

"Chara! It's me- Papyrus!"

"Go away!"

"Stop- just let me speak!"

" _No_!" Chara suddenly lunged to the left, effectively dodging Papyrus and taking off down the forest trail. Papyrus cursed and bolted after them. They were _fast_.

Papyrus chased them past the dog houses, and then past the dead X-O puzzles. It was snowing now, rather hard. Up ahead, Chara was breathing hard but still managed to keep pace, weaving this way and that in an attempt to lose Papyrus, which begrudgingly almost worked with the ever thickening air.

Once they came to the ice puzzle, though, Chara slipped, falling roughly to the ground and hitting their head with a sickening _thunk_.

"Ow-ow-ow-" Chara tried to push themself up again, but was clearly too disoriented. Papyrus caught up, and tried to help them. Instead he got a rough kick to the shin and quickly backed off again, doubled in pain.

Chara wobbled, and tried taking off again. Papyrus grabbed their shoulder.

"Kid, will you freaking _calm your tits_?!"

 _Smack_! This one was much harder than the other one- with the blunt of their palm. A provoked and deliberate slap.

"Do not..." Chara hissed. "...Say that to me."

And they were off again. Papyrus was less confused and more frustrated. He teleported this time, across the cluster of trees that followed the ice puzzle, hoping to cut them off at the end. He was only shocked to see they'd already made it past the forest and had already made it to the last doghouse. The wind picked up drastically now that the trees had cleared, and Chara struggled to keep running. Down at the bridge, a white and blue blur was coming closer, but it was getting harder to see through all the snow and wind.

" _Papyrus_!" A voice drifted on the wind. " _Papyrus, come home, the weather's getting bad and- oh_!"

 _Sans_ , Papyrus realized, and tried to squint through the swirling snow. Just at the edge of the bridge, the blue blur knelt next to a green blur on the ground. He quickly teleported over to them.

Chara was on their hands and knees, shivering violently. Sans was on his knees next to them, holding them steady, rubbing their back and saying something. He looked up when Papyrus appeared. There was an accusatory flame in his eye.

" _Papyrus, what did you do_?!" Sans demanded. And it was just then that Chara's remaining strength gave out and they dropped, falling against Sans. Sans quickly snatched them into his arms, trying to keep them out of the snow.

" _They fainted_!" Sans cried, patting their face, trying to wake them up. Papyrus knelt next to his brother, taking one of Chara's arms.

" _We have to get them home_."

* * *

 **It has begun. If you have any comments or questions, don't forget to hit that review button! They're always appreciated! And don't forget to follow/favorite to stay updated on further chapters. Enjoy the read!**

 **-DFTM**


	12. Scared and Confused

They were like a cornered cat; panicked, uncooperative, and very hostile.

They woke up a day and a half after they'd fainted, taking both Sans and Papyrus by surprise and then immediately attempting to jump through the window.

"Who-who-who-who-whoa, hey!" Sans yelped, grabbing them back. Surprisingly, he seemed to have kept his strength from his time in the Royal Guard. He managed to hold Chara still while choosing his next words carefully.

"We're not going to hurt you," Sans assured Chara as they squirmed against his grip. "I promise. We just want to help you."

It didn't seem the human dared to speak. They shoved off Sans's hands, breaths coming quick and anxious. But they didn't run away, thankfully. They instead tucked themself into the corner of the couch, arms wrapped around their legs to make themself as small as possible.

Papyrus knelt in front of them to meet their eyes. "You feeling okay, kid?"

They didn't answer, they just glared. But it wasn't as though they needed to say anything; their appearance was more than enough to get across that they were sick. They were pale and even a little gaunt. But that didn't make any sense. Nothing like this had happened before; Chara had never before 'started the game' in this shape.

"Tell me what happened to you."

Still, silence. The glare delivered by those blood-red eyes was intimidating enough, but it cut even deeper when Papyrus remembered the last time Chara looked at him this way had been nearly five Resets ago, as _Frisk_. It was a glare of pure, _livid_ distrust.

"They don't like you." Sans observed helpfully.

"I can see that." Papyrus huffed.

Chara was eyeing the door. Papyrus knew it was locked, of course, with magic, so that the screaming storm still stirring up the snow, dirt, and debris outside didn't come crashing in. Still, it made him tense up, ready to snatch them if they bolted.

Sans noticed the way he hovered around them. He pulled Pap back to the kitchen in order to talk somewhat privately. "Papyrus, you're scaring them."

"No, I'm not."

"My gosh, Papyrus! You've been acting so _weird_ lately, _especially_ around this poor kid!" Sans hissed. He threw a glance back to Chara, who was watching them intently. "You know what, I think it's better if you leave."

" _What_?!"

"They clearly feel uncomfortable with you around. So go be weird in your room or something. Let me talk to them alone."

"Sans, come _on_!" Papyrus's level of frustration rose to where he made wild gestures as he ranted. "You don't know what they are. You don't know anything about them! They could lash out, they could attack you while I'm not here to protect you. You only have _one_ defense- you could _die_. All because you wanted this flighty teenager to feel _comfortable_ -"

Sans held up a finger to promptly shut his brother up. "Just go."

Feeling an enormous amount of frustration and betrayal, Papyrus angrily teleported to his room. He used to do that all the time when he was younger, throwing a tantrum when Sans allegedly bossed him around. It was strange to go back to those circumstances. He wasn't used to Sans taking the role of 'older brother' again. Frankly, he didn't like it.

Especially not when Sans had no idea what he was doing. This was _Chara,_ the human with one of the most _powerful souls_ known to monsterkind. In this timeline... who _knew_ what the kid could do.

.:|:.

The kid growled a little when Sans sat down on the other end of the couch.

"It's okay. I'm just turning on the TV so you're not bored." Sans told them cheerily, switching the screen on. The kid jumped at the sudden sound that accompanied the picture. They regarded the TV like it was witchcraft, never taking their eyes off the robot onscreen.

"That's Napstaton." Sans explained, pointing him out. "He's super cool. That's his new body, see? It has two legs and two arms and two eyes and even a mouth! He's been super excited about it, that's why he's been showing it off on TV."

The kid watched Napstaton as he rattled off the daily news, flicking his hair at unnecessary times and winking at the camera randomly. The longer they watched, the more fascinated they seemed to become.

"I bet you'll like his songs." Sans spoke again after maybe ten minutes.

A quiet, tentative voice came from the kid, not too light, not too deep. "He sings?"

"Heck yeah!" Sans tried to smother his excitement. _They speak!_ "He's a 'rap god'. It means he sings super fast."

"That sounds weird." The kid mumbled a little.

"You'll like it. Trust me."

Soon, the channel changed to NTV ("It's like MTV, but with more Napstaton!") and the songs started up. Just as Sans had told them, Napstaton immediately began DJ-ing and 'singing super fast'. Sans snapped his fingers and hummed along, and he caught the faintest of a smile on the kid's face.

It wasn't long before Sans was exchanging thoughts and criticism about Napstaton's music with the kid. They had a small voice but very thought-out opinions. When they asked what Napstaton was, exactly, Sans explained the robot's situation.

"So... he's a ghost... and you're a skeleton." The kid concluded. Sans nodded. They smiled briefly, then frowned again. "But... What kind of monster am I?"

The question threw Sans off a little. Did the kid really not know what species they were? He looked them up and down and tried to come to a conclusion, but he honestly couldn't tell.

"I don't know _what_ kind of monster you are." Sans shrugged. "Do you remember anything at all? Where did you come from?"

The kid shook their head. "I don't know. I just woke up in some flowers and..." Recalling this seemed to trigger something, and they froze. They immediately retreated back to a reclusive state, eyeing Sans warily. "...Just... don't hurt me."

"I won't. I promise. You can trust me."

That last part made them twitch a little with what Sans figured could only be doubt.

"I don't know what happened to you." Sans began again, slowly. "But I don't want that to affect your ability to be my friend. Let's start over." He put a hand on his chest, posing extravagantly. "I'm Sans. I'm pretty much the coolest person in Snowdin. I like making these super cool scarves for people and watching TV." He gestured to the kid. "What's your name?"

The kid smiled again. They looked down at their hands, thinking for a moment, before coming to a decision and looking back at Sans. "I think... I think my name is... Chara."

"That's a pretty name!" Sans encouraged.

"I... I like Napstaton." Chara pointed to the TV. Then they hesitantly pointed to Sans. "And I like you, too."

Sans beamed. Things were getting off to a good start.


	13. New Kid on the Block

11:47 p.m.

They could feel his eyes on them.

Of course they could; they were very perceptive. They always had been. But the talent only made it that much harder for Papyrus to spy on them. Every drop of a pin prompted Chara's attention. Every slight sound earned a skittish glance and a swiveling head, white fingers clutching at the small blue throw blanket while scanning the dark house.

They caught Papyrus peeking through a crack in his bedroom door. They locked gazes and Chara glared at him, never looking away.

 _To hell with it_ , Papyrus huffed, giving up on his secrecy. He stood up and walked out of the room, into the hall. Chara fidgeted on the couch downstairs, keeping their eyes on him as he descended to the first floor.

"What?" Papyrus growled. "Can't a guy get a midnight snack?"

Chara didn't answer, but the anger was still evident in their expression. Papyrus shook his head and shuffled into the kitchen, making as much noise as possible to irritate the human on the couch.

He just didn't understand it. Chara really didn't seem to remember him, or Sans, or even Napstaton from the TV.

 _It must have been because of the machine.._. Papyrus thought nervously, scavenging through the fridge. _The machine must've wiped Chara's memories. It's the only solution. But if Chara can't remember, then how the hell can I?_

Then it hit him, and he froze mid-grab of a cold hot dog.

 _Because I'm the one who Reset._

If he had blood, it'd be the consistency of slush right now.

 _Does that mean..._ I'm _player one_?

Oh gosh. This meant... did this mean Papyrus _still had Chara's soul_? He threw the hot dog back into the fridge with disregard for rewrapping it. He swung back into the living room. "Hey, Chara-?"

They weren't on the couch.

Papyrus felt his bones freeze up and he swivelled his head desperately, seeing the front door and window still shut and locked. Nobody hid under any tables, they hadn't come into the kitchen, they weren't ducked in any shadows-

 _Knock knock._

The sound came from up on the landing. Papyrus's head jerked up to see Chara, blanket around their shoulders, tapping on the door to Sans's room. They were still giving him that nasty look. Papyrus had no time to call to them as the door cracked open and Sans's tired face poked out. He looked surprised to see Chara there.

The two spoke in whispers too quiet for Papyrus to catch, but judging by the irritable glance Sans threw at him, he got the idea Chara was tattling.

Sans smiled at Chara in sympathy and waved them into his room. Then he shut the door, casting Papyrus one last stink eye as he did. Honestly, did everything have to be his fault?

But things were starting to make sense, now. Granted, it was terrifying to think about; that Papyrus could in fact be Player One, now. But with this new theory in mind, Papyrus now had a good idea as to how he could repair this situation.

He had to start fixing that machine again.

.:|:.

"-And that's Icecap!" Sans pointed as they walked by, patting Chara's shoulder so that they looked. "He has this super awesome hat made of ice, see?"

"Yeah." Snickered Snowdrake, who was swaggering up alongside them. "I guess you could say it's pretty _'cool'_."

Sans grimaced. By now Chara had caught on the guy _really_ didn't like terrible puns. Chara, however, couldn't hide their ghost of a smile as they hunched timidly behind the smaller skeleton.

"Sans..." Chara barely dared raise their voice. "Where are we going again?"

"To Doctor Undyne, of course!" Sans announced extravagantly, sweeping his arm up ahead. There really wasn't anything to point out, though. Just a wall of fog. "We're going via Creepy River Guy! It's the fastest way to Waterfall."

"Yeah." Snowdrake was visibly choking back a fit of laughter. "Walking there's a ' _beach'_."

Sans gave the guy (now snorting uncontrollably) another nasty look while Chara processed Sans's words.

"A-A doc... A doctor...?" They shivered, slowing to a stop and surprising Sans. "I-I don't like doctors..."

"Oh, don't worry, she won't give you a shot! She's just going to do a test or two to see what kind of monster you are!" Sans attempted to reassure them. "The most she'll do is just look at your soul, and that doesn't even hurt. I think. Probably. Hmm... sixty-five percent sure."

"It's a lovely heart to heart," Snowdrake wheezed.

"okAY DUDE-!" Sans rounded on the comedian, now squawking with laughter and flapping his wings.

Chara gripped their jacket and bit their lip, subconsciously flinching away from the argument taking place beside them. The fact that these two monsters were _only_ irritable with each other and that the little fight was perfectly _safe_ for both sides...? It almost didn't feel real.

Sans turned when he finally managed to chase off a cackling Snowdrake, catching Chara's on-edge expression. He tried meeting their eyes, but Chara instinctively looked down, avoiding the contact. They shuffled on their feet, kicking up snow.

"You okay?" Sans asked.

"Sorry." They said automatically, even though they had no idea what they were apologizing for.

Sans gave them a look of what could only be discerned as... concern? "Hey, you're not doing anything wrong. Is this walk making you uncomfortable? Did you wanna go home? We can wait a day before we go to Doctor Undyne."

"N-No, it's okay."

"She'll see why you can't remember anything. Maybe you have am... anem..." Sans squinted off into the fog, gears turning as he tried to pronounce it. "Amnemumsia...?"

" _Amnesia_." Snowdrake giggled, coming up behind them again.

Sans groaned. "Dude, what do you _want_?"

Snowdrake didn't answer him, but instead turned to Chara. He grabbed their hands, making them jerk, but the bird didn't try to hit them. Instead, he placed a crumpled up handful of flowers in their palm.

Chara stared at them. "U-Uh... thank... you?"

Sans gave Snowdrake a weird look. "What are those?"

Snowdrake grinned, clicking his beak.

"Forget-me-nots."

"d U D E-"

.:|:.

The Riverman was a cloaked figure, tall and giving off an ominous air. Chara felt a shiver run down their spine when they saw the figure, face hidden in the shadows of the flowing hood, as if the very air around them dropped in their presence.

"Tra-la-la~" The figure cooed in a very soft, airy voice. "I am the Riverman. Or am I the Riverwoman?" They paused for a moment, then gave the tiniest movement, like a shrug. "I guess it doesn't really matter."

Sans didn't seem the slightest bit concerned with the Riverman's creepy aura, or the fact they were lurking in a dark shadowy cave on a creepy boat in a dark river.

"Hi!" Sans greeted happily. "We're going to Waterfall, and we'd like to take the shortcut."

"Come along then," The Riverman sighed. "Come take a ride in my boat."

Chara backed up a few steps. Sans gripped their hand reassuringly.

"It's okay." He promised. "The River Guy won't hurt you."

Chara felt as though they were swallowing wet cement, but they nodded, carefully stepping onto the boat with Sans and the discount Nazgul.

The boat drifted down the river dreamily, riding the water so softly Chara could've been convinced they weren't even moving at all. The tunnel was so dark they couldn't see their hand in front of their face, let alone the other passengers beside them.

"Tra-la-la..." Chara heard from the Riverman. They sounded slightly bewildered. "A treasure chest with nothing inside." A beat. "How curious."

A slight pull from beneath them indicated the boat was slowing to a stop. Their surroundings became brighter; a bluish light spilling in from the dock ahead.

When Chara stepped off the boat, they felt the earth sink beneath their feet, spongey and wet. They couldn't tell where the blue light was coming from, so soft and deep that it washed out every other color in the area. The light was barely bright enough to cast shadows, leaving the Riverman, if possible, even darker than before.

"Ready?" Sans asked excitedly.

"Uh... yeah."

Sans hopped a little and rushed ahead, making his way through the hallway in the center wall of the cave. Chara lingered a moment more, gaze set on the Riverman.

If the Riverman had a face, they'd look skeptical. Chara could tell by the tone in their voice as they spoke one last time.

"Strange." They breathed. "It is not possible for you to exist on this plane. Yet here you are."

Once again, they made a movement as though to shrug. "Oh well."

The boat began to move again, much quicker this time. In a jolt of bravery, Chara stepped forward and called, "Wait! Wha-What do you mean?!"

But the boat was already drifting away down the river tunnel. The Riverman didn't seem to hear Chara's calls... or even care. Chara was left without answers on the dock, washed in blue and even more confused than before.


End file.
